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Comment by zaptheimpaler | Hacker News Reader

I like the idea.. it is tricky to get right though. Cigarette butts smell a lot, so if smokers started carrying around 20 butts in their pack at work/home, non-smokers would not like it. Its hard to imagine modifying a pack cheaply enough to contain the smell.

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Would it smell worse than the smell the smoker already carries? I suppose it might, since some smokers are pretty careful not to get the smoke on their clothing. (You can still smell their lungs for like 5-10 minutes afterwards, though.)

(And... sorry to any smokers reading this. Not trying to shame you, but I want to be realistic about whether this would work or not.)

Yes - a lot worse. And, yes, I know that's saying a lot. Another way to put it is that the only time I ever didn't find spent butts to reek was back when I was smoking three packs a day and couldn't smell anything.

Ouch, fair enough.

In Europe where people get their deposit back for bottles, the homeless (interestingly, not just them, a study in Germany said it also gave bored pensioners something to do) look in trash cans to find bottles to return. I remember reading an experiment where a city (I think in Canada) implemented a trial program to give people 6 cents per cigarette butt: they spent the money marked for the returns quicker than expected because the homeless people collected butts diligently.

It's a bit of a crazy world to make the homeless clean up pollution other people make, but even without this program there are (and will) still be homeless people...

> It's a bit of a crazy world to make the homeless clean up pollution other people make

(Presumably) Refundable deposits don't mandate the homeless do anything. Their desires simply align with the goals of the program.

I'd imagine public ashtrays be pillaged, as they are now to recycle the half smoked tobacco rests. Bad idea.

Who cares if public ashtrays are "pillaged"?

Pocket ashtrays are a normal part of smoking etiquette in Japan.

You can get pocket ashtrays for use when hiking or skiing. I don't smoke so don't know whether they smell or not.

The tax could help reduce the number of butts that are thrown away in wilderness areas too.

If only we could make air tight containers of some sort.

I agree these would be great. You make them different sizes and stackable! You might even be able to store food in your cigarette smell containers if you made them big enough. Why has no one come up with resealable airtight containers?

I agree, but have to point out that non-smokers not liking disgusting smells has never stopped smokers before.

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